ISO: ZAF
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The electronic version of this document has been prepared at the Fourth
World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
Secretariat.
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AS WRITTEN
SPEECH BY DR NKOSAZANA DLAMINIZUMA,
MINISTER OF HEALTH OF SOUTH AFRICA
TO THE 4TH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN
IN BEIJING 6 SEPTEMBER 1995 AT 15:00
MADAME PRESIDENT, MS CHEN MUHUA
MADAME SECRETARY GENERAL, MS MONGELLA
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
I rise with a sense of humility and gratitude to speak on behalf of an
apartheid-free South Africa at this historic United Nations Conference.
I am moved by the opportunity to address you from this rostrum, in
contrast to Mexico, Copenhagen and Nairobi where we participated as a
liberation movement. I want to add our voice to those who have commented
on the warmth and friendship with which we have been received, and to
thank the government and the people of China for their hospitality.
Our democracy is but 17 months old, but even as we celebrate, we know
that democracy does not necessarily bring total freedom. In the words of
the late former president of the African National Congress Oliver Tambo:
“No country can boast of being free unless its women are free”. That is
the challenge we now face.
Women in South Africa are definitely not free. The majority live in
poverty and many cannot read or write. Millions do not have proper
housing and no access to water, sanitation, education or health
services. They ate marginalised economically with no right to own land.
Under customary law they marry and live their lives as effective minors
subject to the authority of a male relative.
Culture, tradition and religion are still used as an exercise to deny
women equality and to enhance unequal power relations in the family and
society in general.
we therefore have no illusions about the scale of the challenges that
lie ahead. But of course, South African women together with some men
continue to participate in the revolution for equality, development and
peace with the same vigour and determination as they did in the struggle
against apartheid. Indeed the majority of our people are determined to
continue, until the non-sexist society to which we aspire becomes a
reality.
Our president, Nelson Mandela, in his very first State of the Nation
address in May 21994 said: “Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have
been emancipated from all forms of oppression. To this end, we have
acknowledged that the objectives of our Reconstruction and Development
Programme will not be realised unless we see, in visible and practical
terms, that the condition of women in our country has radically changed
for the better, and that women at every level have been empowered to
intervene in all aspects of life as equals with any other member of
society. My government is committed to a reallocation of resources to
ensure the achievement of this objective.
I would like Madame President, to briefly set out some of our
achievements to date and our immediate objectives.
Having suffered extreme forms of oppression and degradation under the
apartheid system, the women of South Africa were determined to seize the
opportunity presented by the negotiation process to ensure the best
possible deal for the women. Important lessons from the experiences of
the women of the world were crucial in forming positions of South
African women. We are therefore greatful to the women of the world in
this regard.
This experience and solidarity South African women received have
resorted in a gender sensitive constitution that entrenches equality
between men and women. The constitution also establishes mechanisms to
enable the attainment of the goal of equality such as Commission and the
Human Rights Commission.
This has created an enabling environment for government to advance its
developmental programmes. We recognise that laws and constitution do not
bring about equality and empowerment on their own, they have to be
accompanied by struggles on the ground.
Deeply conscious of the need for women to be involved in making
decisions about the new South Africa, the majority party, the ANC,
decided on a quota and ensured that 33% of its candidates in the
country’s first democratic elections were women. [Most, but not all,
other parties also put forward more women than they had ever done
before.] As a result today 25% of our members of Parliament are women.
Two of our provincial legislatures and our National Assembly are
presided over by woman speakers.
We are also one of the very few Parliaments that now provide child care
facilities for members of Parliament and all parliamentary workers.
Throughout this century, apartheid South Africa produced only two (2)
women ministers. Democratic South Africa has begun with three (3 )
Cabinet Ministers and three (3) Deputy Ministers. Of the eleven (11)
judges on our new Constitutional Court, two (2) are women.
This is obviously not enough. There still has to be progress in commerce
and industry, religion, training and other institutions. Women are not
integrated into the economy and they do not own the means of production.
My government is considering the possibility of introducing an
additional set of national accounts which will recognise as the value of
unpaid labour in the creation of our national wealth. We are committed
also to introducing the ILO standards in terms of conditions as well as
renumeration.
A Women’s Development Bank operating on the principles of the Women’s
World Bank is now established in South Africa. Our government now needs
to ensure that the very poorest women have access to credit through the
main commercial banks.
We are committed to a policy of Affirmative Action with the objective of
ensuring that all aspects of our society and institutions are fully
representative of our people in terms of both race and sex.
The first step in achieving education for all was taken at the beginning
of this year, when schooling was made free and compulsory for all
children in the first year of school phasing it in up to the first ten
years of schooling. There is also a Primary School feeding scheme in the
poor areas so as to improve the concentration level of learning children
and eliminate hunger.
The core curriculum for schools now incorporates life skills, gender
awareness in sex education to increase young people’s capacity,
especially girls, to prevent amongst other things teenage pregnancies
and HIV/AIDS. The transformation of our education system and curriculum
requires and includes the retraining of teachers at every level.
The major thrust in health services is to create an National Health
System with comprehensive health care that is universally accessible. As
the first step towards this, we have introduced free healthcare for
pregnant women and children under the age of six throughout the country.
Universal access to education and health will dramatically change the
position of girls. Proving reproductive rights has also been accorded
priority. Women need to decide that women could terminate pregnancy on
request up to 24 weeks under special circumstances.
The elimination of violence against women both domestic and public, is a
priority. The training of judges and other official in handling cases of
rape in a sensitive and appropriate manner has recently begun. We have a
few special rape courts, which have to be extended throughout the
country.
My Government is committed to the ratification of international treaties
on human rights standing with the Convention for the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women. Parliament is finalising the
process, and we hope to accede to the Convention without reservations,
before the end of this Conference.
The advancement of peace and conflict resolution and the protection of
rights of women who have been internally displaced are high on our
agenda.
Discrimination against married women in taxation has been removed. But
action still needs to be taken to facilitate women’s equal access to
resources, employment, financial markets and trade, including enhancing
rural women’s income generating potential. A task group has been formed
to review the land ownership laws with the view of improving women’s
access to land.
In the field of Social Welfare even if no additional resources can be
provided with intersectoral co-operation, it will be possible for us to
create a national consciousness around issues of violence against women.
We are committed to providing shelters for battered women. We recognise
that the maintenance system needs to be accessible to women, and the
judicial system has to address the problems created by men who default
on payment.
South Africa’s experience has told us that institutionalised oppression
can not be reformed, but needs to be eradicated from society. We are
therefore committed to radical transformation, which will set in place a
society in which a human rights culture prevails.
As women, we are seeking a privileged status with special rights. We
have seen that laws constitutions and bills of rights in themselves can
not bring effective equality for women because women have a subordinate
status in society. This status prevents us from claiming and exercising
our human rights as equal citizens. That’s why the Platform for Action
addresses the crucial areas that prevent the extension of human rights
to women ( we are pleased with the United Nations Programmes).
My government pledges itself to the full implementation of this
Programme as a major step to achieve non-sexist South Africa which is
our ultimate goal.